Posted on 01/21/2006 3:06:06 PM PST by patriciaruth
Welcome to the 2006 thread of the Merry Band of Patriots!
Our grassroots, volunteer group of troop supporters has been sending care packages to servicemen and women in war zones since the summer of 2001 when we began by sending VHS movies and Snickers candy bars to the 101st Airborne and then later the 10th Mountain at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.
This last year we sent a couple hundred care packages to troops at Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul and Tal Afar in Iraq, at Bagram in Afghanistan, at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and to our wounded at Landstuhl Regional Hospital in Germany.
Our specialty in the past has been movies, books, snacks, holiday decorations and some appliances like DVD players and Playstations, and we have sent hundreds of movies to various bases.
This last year we had 6 main projects in addition to the usual care packages:
1. We sent over 80 state-of-the-art Petzl headlamps to our adopted company of Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Mosul and 35 to an MI unit at Kirkuk. This was probably the most appreciated item we've ever sent, thanks to a project that got off the ground due to the work of Spanaway Lori, HannaUSA , and Oatka and 3/4th of which was funded by my optometrist.
2. There was the Personal Care items "Emergency" Airlift to Bagram air base in June and July. (mathluv, nina0113, Coop, JustAmy, airborne, iceskater, Tunehead54, jtill participated.)
3. The 4th of July Party Decorations and Snacks blowout for all our adopted units. (pictures at posts 357, 358, 368 of our 2005 thread)
4. Operation Popcorn in August and September for the Engineers at Baghdad (iceskater, mathluv, SENClander, Coop, Abigail Adams, Ros42, Ican'tbelieve it, jtill and ebay's mshoponline sent over 600 bags of microwave popcorn, while omegatoo's were lost in the shuffle of her evacuating New Orleans prior to the Katrina flooding)
5. The End of Summer Luau for psyops at Baghdad in September and October (MJY1288 mailed off the party things we bought at eBay and Amazon with contributions from fanfan, kattracks, jtill, Just mythoughts, Ros42, Pig Rigger, MJY1288 and Kitty Mittens. Pictures at post 809 of the 2005 thread)
6. Halloween candy and movies for the Troops (kattracks, SENClander, Ican'tbelieveit, Abigail Adams mailed boxes in addition to the ones I sent with donations)
7. The Amazing Christmas and New Years Deluge, when it rained packages at all our adopted bases, especially at Tal Afar.
Special mentions go to Teams captains: mathluv (Engineers Baghdad), Ros42 (psyops Baghdad), CAluvdubya (Tal Afar), Abigail Adams (Stryker at Mosul), VeniVidiVici (MI at Kirkuk), nina0113 (Bagram, Afghanistan). Fairy Godmother Dept. (kattracks), Christmas Trees and Christmas Cards R Us (daybreakcoming), Shipping Dept (MJY1288), DVD Recording Dept (MJY1288), Webhosting and Photoshopping Dept (New Perspective), Daddy Warbucks Dept (my optometrist).
Among the many care packages sent by our troop supporters are these projects.
Boxes of school supplies for Iraqi children were sent by mathluv, Ican'tbelieveit, and my mother to Operation Crayon in Kirkuk.
Some members (CAluvdubya, angelsonmyside, 4integrity, ebay's susiemck) helped fill requests for Western Movies from an MI unit at Kirkuk (now home, movies still there) and Clint Eastwood and Adam Sandler movies from Fox Battery at Kirkuk (now home, movies still there).
bjcintennesse made many dozens of cooling neck scarves and sent them to pysops and Engineers at Baghdad.
DAVEY CROCKETT mailed boxesful of car magazines to a couple units.
A copy of the hardback book about the first year of the Revolutionary War (1776 by David McCullough) was sent to most of our units by DrDeb, iceskater, SwatTeam, and Just a Cowgirl.
Ros42 and mscht adopted a unit at Camp Ramadi for Christmas. (picture at 1195 of the 2005 thread).
CheneyChick and daybreakcoming saw to it that some care packages went to a remnant of our troops still in Kosovo.
Daybreakcoming's sister helped the staffers of the Louisiana legislature send about 8 boxes with around 32 bags of Christmas candy to Tal Afar.
Our many generous donors of checks, cash, money orders, Paypal, shopping cards, phone cards, etc are listed in the Accounting posts in our 2005 thread which can be linked from the post below.
We were surprised and emotional when we received back from our adopted units some of the items pictured below, and a big thank you to jkphoto for taking the pictures and webhosting them.
Supplies so far for 4th of July:
About 200/250 small flag "toothpicks" (from cake decorating supplies); about 6 RWB "star" thin wire garlands (18 to 25 yards each); 4 RWB-flag banner/pennants (12 feet each). That's what I know for sure. I'll review the stockpile tonight and post any additions. The dollar store near me has RWB plates, bowls and cups 14/16 per pack which I can also include.
So far I have red, white, blue dishes, cups, napkins & tablecloths. A couple of flag balloons w/string, [uninflated :O)] and some snacks and drink mixes. I'll give you a full count when they're ready to go.
Kat, let's coordinate with JoyjoyfromNJ about decorations, etc. as she has some things she's going to send, too.
As I said I've got around 200 plates, napkins (can pick up an extra 20 large plates to round out the shortfall.) I can send the small ones one place and the large ones another place if we're short. I also have 10 small flags on wooden sticks.
You two can divvy up what's going where and just tell me where you need me to send my plates/napkins/flags. Or I can send some to Irbil and some to Bagram. I also have the 3 canisters of lemonade mix(96 qts. total) that I can mail with a bunch of movies I got recently to wherever needed.
I can get 16 oz cheap plastic red cups and some blue ones to go with the plates/napkins if needed, or someone could volunteer to send those, maybe with edibles.
We definitely need to cover Tal Afar, Stryker at Mosul, and Stryker at the border.
So, just let me know. And anyone else who joins in and help, let us know.
Kat, could you also contact SENClander about what she might send to one of these bases for 4th of July before the end of May. She's offered to do one or maybe two boxes.
Emails from the front.
FROM Stryker near the Syrian border:
Sorry it has been so long we have been very busy as the summer comes into play here. We have received all of the packages that you sent and I plan on turning your info over to the next unit as well. I can not thank you enough for all that you do and have done for my Soldiers. Thanks again and God Bless You
1SG **
FROM a Bridgade Combat Team at TAL AFAR:
LOL, I loved the joke. And how true he was.
The local mart that we can get movies from closed down about a month ago for security reasons so we are again stuck with AAFES over inflated prices on everything. ...
As for 4th of July..........how about some get out of Iraq free cards, like the get out of jail free cards in Monopoly? Just kidding. Hmmmmmm, the stuff that has always gone fast was the beefy jerky, snack cakes and mostly whatever that wasn't healthy, lol. Now if you could send so for instance,,,,,,,,,100 big macs supersized, they would go crazy. Again, just fooling. But for real though, the soldiers are so delighted when they receive anything that I know they would never be picky or even dare ask for anything specific. I know this isn't much help but beggers can't be choosy, right?
...
BTW, [fanfan] is not your only person from Canada. I correspond with *** from Peterborough Ontario also.
...
I have received packages from both [kattracks] and [SwatTeam] of whom I have thanked personally and even sent them pictures of some of the soldiers enjoying their packages. I also received packages from [Dinah Lord] who is from NJ. She sent 5 boxes, good Lord. I do worry that people are spending an arm and a leg sending stuff here. Please don't go overboard on us. We are soldiers first and are used to hardships, that is what we do.
Well I will close for now. I need to go eat but I will zip out another email this afternoon with some pictures of us. ... I don't have pics of everyone because we are all working in different areas on different shifts.
Take care and God Bless You.
Respectfully yours,
SGT ***
I'll pick up some cups and food items. Should I send them to you or to Kat?
Oorah! Glad to hear that our boxes made it to our soldiers at Tal Afar!
God Bless our troops and God Bless America.
Cheers - Dinah.
I can send a couple of boxes of treats for the Stryker unit in Mosul. I'm thinking I'll maybe send some drink mixes (lemonade, iced tea, kool-aid) and some candy/snacks. I have a limited budget, so we'll need more volunteers!
I'm guessing we'll need at least 3 other people to send treats to Mosul. Plus at least 2 people to send decorations. What do you think Patty?
Let me know if you have specific ideas about what we should send to Mosul. Thanks!
LOL!
I could print some up, and send them over, but somehow I don't think it would do them much good!
He's got a great sense of humor, eh?
Is this the reply you received from the address I gave you yesterday?
For Tal Afar
2 boxes Pop Weaver Popcorn (4 packages per), 2 pkgs. French's Potato Sticks, 1 bag Chex Mix, 1 bag Chex Sweet & Salty Mix, 2 pkgs. Rolets Fried Rinds, 10 boxes Slim Jims (5 per), 1 tub of Tang (makes 6 qts.), 1 tub of Country Time Pink Lemonade (makes 8 qts.), 1 tablecloth (blue with stars border), 20 red plates, 20 blue plates, 20 Flag plates, 60 napkins (20 each R/W/B) , 100 cups (50 red, 50 blue), 2 Flag balloons (w/string), 1 tabletop decoration (R/W/B streamers).
For Stryker at the border
2 boxes Pop Weaver Popcorn (4 pkgs. per), 3 pkgs. French's Potato Sticks, 1 lg. box Crunch n' Munch, 10 boxes Slim Jims (5 per), 1 jar Roasted Peanuts (1 lb.), 2 pkgs. Rolets Fried rinds, 1 pkg. Chex Ceddar mix, 1 tub Kool Aid Cherry mix (makes 8qts.) 1 tub Kool Aid Tropical Punch mix (makes 8 qts.), 30 Flag plates, 36 cups (12 each R/W/B), 1 tablecloth (blue w/ stars border), 2 Flag balloons, 1 tabletop decoration.
What a blessing to read a thank you from such a grateful writer.
Coop, how about mailing your stuff directly? You know how it's done.
Cups are not that heavy but bulky and don't fit well in the flat rate boxes. You could mail them directly much more cheaply from the East Coast than I can from California.
Can you get 200? Then we can match up, and mail to the same base.
What was the name of the book?
On the run, more later.
We have the following movie requests, and boxed TV series requests from Tal Afar. This unit gets around, so the movies will be widely distributed.
I have already got here the 1st Season of 24 (Kiefer Sutherland, and the first 2 Seasons of Smallville (Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk), and the movie Total Recall (Schwarzenegger).
If anybody has or can get a hold of any the following DVD's, please let me know.
TV Series:
24, Seasons 2, 3, or 4 (Kiefer Sutherland)
Smallville (Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk) Seasons 3 or 4
Stargate SG-1, Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 (Richard Dean Anderson, Amanda Tapping)
DVD movies:
Alien (Sigourney Weaver)
Aliens (Sigourney Weaver)
Alien 3 (Sigourney Weaver)
Alien Resurrection (Sigourney Weaver)
Alien versus Predator (AVP)
Braveheart (Mel Gibson)
Eraser (Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams)
Godzilla (Matthew Broderick)
James Bond movies with Sean Connery:
Dr. No
Goldfinger
You Only Live Twice
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
From Russia with Love
The Man with the Golden Gun
Napoleon Dynamite
The Passion of the Christ (Jim Caviezel)
Star Wars:
I The Phantom Menace (Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd)
II Attack of the Clones (Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christiansen, Samuel L. Jackson)
III Revenge of the Sith (Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen)
IV A New Hope (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher)
V The Empire Strikes Back (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher)
VI Return of the Jedi (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher)
Wedding Crashers Uncorked (Owen Wilson, Vaughn)
We Were Soldiers (Mel Gibson)
Windtalkers (Nicolas Cage)
Without a Paddle (Burt Reynolds)
Error: The Man with the Golden Gun stars Roger Moore.
How about cookies? Chips Ahoy, Oreos are popular as they are one of the only ways chocolate can make it there this time of year.
Kat, I don't think they have a microwave at the border. They're living in tents without much in the way of amenities. So, for that Stryker unit, the microwave popcorn is probably not a good idea.
They have a microwave at Tal Afar. I checked.
No problem at all. I misunderstood earlier and thought you needed stuff to pack your own boxes. I'll try to swing by the store later today. Let me know if there are any particular food items (whatever) you think might be needed/wanted. Otherwise I'll just use my foggy memories of being a deployed troop. :-)
Please FReepmail me the address and POC. Thanks again for being such an angel for our military!
Pinging a few folks that already do a lot for the troops, but may have some ideas for helping out. Cheers!
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